Falcons Travel To Purdue To Wrap Up Nonconference Play

Saturday, September 26

West Lafayette, Ind.

12:00 pm ET

Bowling Green State University

Purdue

Tickets

September 22, 2015 | Football

By: by Scott Swegan, BGSU Athletic Communications

Bowling Green State University Falcons (1-2)
at
Purdue University Boilermakers (1-2)

GAME INFORMATION	Saturday, Sept. 26, 12:00 pm
LOCATION	West Lafayette, Ind. (Ross-Ade Stadium)
TELEVISION	Big Ten Network (Chris Denari, Stanley Jackson)
RADIO	Falcon Radio Network (Todd Walker, John Gibson)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
WATCH ONLINE	BTN2GO.com
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	BGSU \| Purdue \| MAC

Falcons Set To Wrap Up NonConference Action At Purdue
Bowling Green State University will travel to Purdue to wrap up nonconference play this weekend. Kickoff between the Boilermakers and Falcons is set for Saturday (Sept. 26) at noon on the Big Ten Network. Both BGSU and Purdue enter the game with identical 1-2 records.

A Win Against Purdue Would...
• Allow the Falcons to finish with a 2-2 nonconference record through one of the toughest non-league schedules in the entire country.
• Be Dino Babers' 10th win as the head coach at Bowling Green and his third over a Big Ten Conference opponent.
• Make the Falcons 3-0 all-time against the Boilermakers. The Falcons have also defeated Purdue in 1972 and 2003 on the road.
• Mark the first time since the 2003 season that the Falcons have defeated multiple Big Ten Conference and Power Five Conference opponents in the same season.

Falcon Facts From Memphis
• BGSU finished with 579 yards on 74 plays Saturday against Maryland, averaging 7.8 yards per play.
• The final score of 44-41 in a home opener at Doyt L. Perry Stadium marked the second-highest combined score in a home opener in BGSU football history. The highest was 88 points in a 48-40 win against Buffalo in 2006.
• Matt Johnson passed for 443 yards on Saturday in a loss to Memphis, his third consecutive 400-yard passing performance. No Falcon quarterback has ever had more than two 400-yard performances in a season prior to Johnson in 2015.
• Johnson has passed for 12 touchdowns in three games thus far and now has 39 career touchdowns which is tied for seventh in school history.
• Roger Lewis had seven catches for 261 yards and three touchdowns. It was his career-high for yards in a game and touchdowns. The 261 yards were just 17 shy of Freddie Barnes' school-record of 278 set in a 2008 game at Kent State.
• Lewis became the first Falcon receiver since Ronnie Moore in 2013 to have three receiving touchdowns in the same game.
• Ronnie Moore (19), Ryan Burbrink (18) and Roger Lewis (17) all extended their streaks of consecutive games with at least one reception on Saturday.
• Austin Valdez finished with a career-high 20 tackles in Saturday's loss to Memphis. It was the first 20-tackle performance at Bowling Green since Dwayne Woods had 20 tackles in a game against Buffalo on Oct. 2, 2010.
• Over the last six quarters, Bowling Green has scored 83 points.
• Both Donovan Wilson (rushing) and Teo Redding (receiving) scored their first career touchdowns in Saturday's game.

Head Coach Dino Babers
• Dino Babers is in his second season at the helm of the Orange and Brown, and his fourth season overall as a head coach. He has a career record of 28-15 and has won a championship in all three seasons thus far.
• Babers has impressed in his Bowling Green tenure thus far, winning eight games in his first season. In those eight wins were a victory over a Big Ten foe (Indiana), a MAC East Division championship, and Bowling Green's first bowl win since the 2004 season.
• The Falcons are off to a strong start in 2015, scoring 30 points against No. 25 Tennessee before racking up 692 yards and 48 points in a road victory over Maryland. This past weekend, the Falcons offense scored 41 points and had 579 yards of total offense against Memphis.

Falcon Offense Finding Another Gear
• The Falcons' offense has been good in each of the past two seasons, but it is already showing why expectations were so high entering the 2015 season with every offensive starter back from the 2014 campaign.
• In the first game of the season against No. 25 Tennessee, the Falcons racked up 557 yards of total offense.
• BGSU followed up that week one performance with 692 yards in week two on the road at Maryland, just 14 yards shy of the school record. The Falcons scored 48 points in the win, tied for the most points in a game under Babers. It was the eighth time that Bowling Green has surpassed the 500-yard mark under Babers in just 16 games.
• This past week at Memphis, the Falcons averaged 7.8 yards per play and had 579 yards on just 74 total plays. The Falcons scored 41 points and have now scored 83 points in the last six quarters.
• During Dino Babers' brief tenure-to-date, the Falcons have had 500-or-more yards of offense nine times in just 17 games. Three of the Falcons' top five offensive performances over the last two seasons have come in the first three weeks of this season.

Falcon Fans #PackTheDoyt For Home Opener Vs. Memphis
• Bowling Green fans showed up to support their Falcon football team in the home opener Saturday against Memphis. After playing No. 25 Tennessee tough on the road and then beating Maryland in week two on the road, BGSU fans were excited to welcome the orange and brown home. 21,178 was the announced attendance for Saturday's game.
• The attendance was the largest for a home opener at Doyt L. Perry Stadium since 23,184 fans showed up for the 2008 home opener against Minnesota.

2015 #GutGang Feasting At The All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Buffet
• Bowling Green features one of the most experienced offensive line units in the entire country, and it has showed thus far.
• The Falcons' have 140 offensive line career starts on the roster, second-most in FBS football. Alex Huettel (44), Logan Dietz (31), Jacob Bennett (31), Tim McAuliffe (17), Ben Steward (14) and Ryan Hunter (3) make up the 140.
• Bowling Green was one of just nine schools in the entire country to start the same five players on the offensive line every game last season. The Falcons were joined by Fresno State, UL-Lafayette, Northern Illinois, Ohio State, Rutgers, Tulane, Wisconsin and Rice. BGSU is the only one of those nine that returns all five starters in 2015.

Johnson Throws For 400 Yards...Again
• Falcons quarterback Matt Johnson threw for 443 yards on Saturday against Memphis. It was his third 400-yard passing performance in as many weeks.
• Johnson is the first quarterback in BGSU football's 96-year history to ever throw for 400 yards in back-to-back games. He is also the first quarterback to ever throw for more than 400 yards three times in the same season.

Matty J Off To A Record-Setting Start
• With his three 400-yard passing performances to start the season, Matt Johnson has passed for an NCAA-best 1,358 yards and 12 touchdowns through three games.
• Just two quarterbacks in BGSU's 96-year football history have ever eclipsed the 4,000-yard passing mark in a season: Tyler Sheehan (4,051 in 2009) and Omar Jacobs (4,002 in 2004).
• Through the first three weeks of the season, Johnson is 430 yards ahead of Sheehan's pace through the first three weeks of the 2009 season (928 yards) and 580 yards ahead of Jacobs' pace (778 yards) despite having played two Power Five conference opponents and Memphis who has won 10 straight games.
• In fact, Johnson's 1,358 yards are 87 yards better than Sheehan's best three-game stretch during the 2009 season (1,271) and 189 yards better than Omar Jacobs best three-game stretch during the 2004 season (1,169).
• Johnson has 12 touchdowns through the first three weeks of the 2015 season. BGSU's school record is 41 touchdown passes in a season, set by Omar Jacobs in 2004. Jacobs' best three-game stretch in 2004 was 14 touchdown passes, which he did during the final three games of that season.

Lewis Goes For 200 Yards...Again
• Wide receiver Roger Lewis caught seven passes for a career-high 261 yards and three touchdowns Saturday against Memphis. The 261 yards were second-most in school history and seventh-most in MAC history.
• It was Lewis' second-straight 200-yard receiving performance, the first player in BGSU football history to ever accomplish that feat in consecutive games.
• Lewis is just the second Falcon ever to have multiple 200-yard receiving performances in the same season, joining Freddie Barnes who did so twice during his record-setting 2009 season.

Lewis Leading The NCAA
• Thanks to his back-to-back 200-yard receiving games, Roger Lewis currently leads the NCAA with 510 receiving yards and five touchdowns. The next closest receiver in the NCAA has just 458 yards - 52 yards behind Lewis' pace.
• Freddie Barnes set BGSU's school-record in 2009 with 1,770 receiving yards on an NCAA-record 155 receptions. But, through three games that season, Barnes had just 336 yards and two touchdowns.
• Barnes best three-game stretch during his record-setting season saw him rack up 610 receiving yards, including games of 278 (school record), 160 and 172.
Falcons Take Nation's Top Offense To Purdue
• Bowling Green will walk into Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday afternoon featuring the nation's most prolific offense.
• The Falcons have racked up 1,828 yards thus far, averaging 609.3 per game. The Falcons have 83 first downs (9th in NCAA), are averaging 455.7 yards per game passing (1st in NCAA), and are first in the MAC in scoring offense (39.7).
• The BGSU offensive attack features the nation's top quarterback and wide receiver to date, as well.

A B1G Win For BGSU
• Last Saturday's win over Maryland marked the first time in school history that Bowling Green has defeated a Big Ten Conference opponent in back-to-back seasons.
• Last season, the Falcons beat Indiana 45-42 at Doyt L. Perry Stadium on Sept. 13. Nearly a year later, the Orange and Brown defeated Maryland on the road, 48-27.
• The Falcons will look to claim two wins over a Big Ten foe in a season for the first time since 2003, when they defeated both Purdue and Northwestern in the same campaign.

Unchartered Territory
• Bowling Green enters the week in unchartered territory by NCAA football standards. The Falcons currently have four receivers and two running backs who have over 1,000 career yards.
• Travis Greene is one of the select running backs in the nation with more than 2,500 rushing yards in his career. Greene enters this week's game with 2,715 career rushing yards, fourth-most in BGSU school history.
• Fred Coppet joins Greene with more than 1,000 career rushing yards, totaling 1,180 to date.
• Four receivers - Ryan Burbrink, Ronnie Moore, Roger Lewis, and Chris Gallon - have more than 1,000 career receiving yards.
• Burbrink leads the group with 1,772 career yards receiving. Lewis, after back-to-back 200-yard games, has 1,603 career receiving yards while Ronnie Moore has 1,475.
• Gallon, after missing 18 games due to injury between 2013 and 2014, has returned this season. His eight yard reception last Saturday at Maryland put him over 1,000 career receiving yards. He currently sits at 1,005 yards.

Redding And Wilson Score First Career Touchdowns
• Two Falcons scored their first career touchdowns on Saturday, as Teo Redding (receiving) and Donovan Wilson (rushing) found paydirt against Memphis.
• For Redding, who had two catches for 17 yards in the game, his nine-yard catch for a touchdown late in the first half was the first score of his career.
• For Wilson, a transfer from Georgia Tech, his two-yard rush got him into the end zone for the first time in his career.

Trio Of Falcon Receivers Are Streaking
• Three Bowling Green receivers are riding impressive streaks, as all three have caught a pass in at least 17 consecutive games. In two cases, those streaks stretch back to the 2013 season.
• Ronnie Moore leads the trio with a reception in 19 straight games dating back to the MAC Championship Game in 2013. On Saturday, Moore had seven receptions for 64 yards.
• Sure-handed Ryan Burbrink has caught a pass in 18 consecutive games dating back to the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in 2013. Burbrink had a team-high eight catches for 77 yards in the loss to Memphis last week.
• Roger Lewis also has an impressive streak going, having caught a pass in all 16 career games he has played in. He caught seven passes for a career-best 261 yards and three touchdowns in last week's game against Memphis.

Knowledge Is Power
• Did you know? The Bowling Green State University Falcons have scored 83 points over the last six quarters of play. The Falcons scored 42 second-half points at Maryland before scoring 41 against Memphis last weekend.

Valdez Turns In Historic 20-tackle day
• Starting linebacker Austin Valdez set a new career benchmark on Saturday against Memphis, totaling 20 tackles.
• It was the first 20-tackle performance for a Falcon since Dwayne Woods did so on Oct. 2, 2010 against Buffalo, 63 games ago.
• The 20 tackles for Valdez Saturday marked just the third time dating back to the year 2000 that a Falcon has had at least 20 tackles in a game.

Indiana Natives Return Home To Face Purdue
• Several members of the Bowling Green football team will get an opportunity to play in their home state this weekend when the Falcons travel to West Lafayette for a date with Purdue.
• Four South Bend natives - Nolan and Gehrig Dieter, along with Alfonso Mack and Terrance Bush - will be within a few hours of their home town for this weekend's game.
• James Knapke, a native of Fort Wayne, also hails from the state of Indiana.
• The sixth member of the Falcons from Indiana - Quintaz Wright - is not eligible to play this season due to NCAA Transfer policy.

Watch List Falcons
• Eight members of the 2015 Bowling Green football team were named to preseason watch lists, announced by the national College Football Awards Association over the summer.
• Ronnie Moore (Sanford, Fla.) was named to the Paul Hornung Watch List as one of the nation's most versatile players
• Tim McAuliffe (Lemont, Ill.) was named to the Rimington Trophy Watch List as one of the country's best centers
• Tyler Tate (Carroll, Ohio) is on the Lou Groza Award Watch List as one of the best placekickers in the country
• Alex Huettel (Pickerington, Ohio) was named to the Rotary Lombardi Award Watch List as one of the best interior linemen in the nation
• Both Ryan Burbrink (Shady Side, Md.) and Roger Lewis (Pickerington, Ohio) were named to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List as some of the country's best wide receivers
• Christian Piazza (Ann Arbor, Mich.) was named to the Wuerffel Trophy Preseason Watch List
• Travis Greene (Carol City, Fla.), one of the best running backs in school history, was named to the Doak Walker Award Watch List

Greene Set To Wrap Up Historic Career In 2015
Redshirt senior Travis Greene is in his third season at running back for the Falcons in 2015, after coming to BGSU and playing wide receiver his first two years on campus. Greene has set the school record for most rushing yards in a season and nearly broke 1,000 yards a season ago despite missing two games because of injury. What will his third year bring? He is chasing several milestones in the Orange and Brown in 2015, including:
• Currently sits 4th all-time with 2,715 rushing yards...just 708 yards shy of the all-time career record currently held by Dave Preston (1973-76)
• Could become just the second Falcon player ever, behind Paul Miles, to lead Bowling Green in rushing in three consecutive seasons
• Comes into 2015 with 14 career 100-yard rushing games...the school record is 20 held by Dave Preston.

Mean Trent Greene
• Until the middle of August, Trent Greene was a walk-on player for the Falcons. Following one of BGSU's fall practice sessions, head coach Dino Babers announced that he was being placed on scholarship.
• Greene has shined from his outside linebacker position during the first two weeks, totaling 30 tackles.
• He has 2.5 tackles for loss through three games, second-most on the team.
• Against Tennessee, Greene had a career-high 12 tackles while following it up with eight on the road against Maryland. Against Memphis, Greene totaled 10 tackles.

Falcons 2-0 All-Time Against Purdue
• Bowling Green will put their perfect series record on the line Saturday at Purdue. The Falcons are 2-0 all-time against the Big Ten foe.
• The series began in 1972, when the Falcons pulled out a 17-14 win at No. 18 Purdue.
• The next game was 31 years later, when the Falcons went into West Lafayette to play No. 16 Purdue. When Josh Harris connected with Charles Sharon in the corner of the end zone on a fourth-down play late in the game, the Falcons pulled out a 27-26 win to move to 2-0 in the series.

Babers/Purdue Have Long History
• Bowling Green head coach Dino Babers has a long history with Purdue, having coached the Boilermakers from 1991-93.
• Babers' second daughter, Tasha, was born during his time at Purdue.
• Purdue head coach Darrell Hazell coached running backs at Eastern Illinois in the 1988 season, taking over for Babers who had held the same position in 1987.

Babers Against The Big Ten
• Head coach Dino Babers is 2-1 during his tenure at Bowling Green against opponents from the Big Ten Conference.
• During his first season, Babers and the Falcons split a pair of games against Big Ten foes, defeating Indiana before losing to Wisconsin.
• This season, Babers and the Falcons defeated Maryland 48-27 on the road during week two. When they travel to Purdue, the Falcons will be looking to knock off a second Big Ten Conference opponent in the same season since defeating Purdue and Northwestern in 2003.

Former Falcons In The NFL
• Eight former Falcons were on preseason NFL rosters this season, including four who have played a significant role with NFL teams over the past several years.
• Chris Jones, a defensive lineman for the New England Patriots, played a huge part in the Super Bowl a season ago. The 2012 MAC Defensive Player of the Year, Jones has 79 tackles and 9.0 sacks in the last two years. He was placed on the PUP list to begin the 2015 season.
• Kory Lichtensteiger is the starting center for the Washington Redskins, having started 67 games for them since the 2010 season.
• Shaun Suisham is the placekicker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Signed through the 2018 season and a captain, Suisham will miss the 2015 season with a torn ACL suffered in the preseason.
• Alex Bayer, after playing last season with the St. Louis Rams, was picked up by the San Diego Chargers and will begin the season on the practice squad.
• Jude Adjei-Barimah (Tampa Bay Bucs) and Gabe Martin (Arizona Cardinals) are signed to their respective practice squads, while Kendall Montgomery (Miami) and D.J. Lynch (New England) were in preseason camps.

Falcons On National TV This Season
• The Orange and Brown are currently scheduled to appear on National TV seven times this season, with every game expected to be broadcast to a national audience.
• The first two games of the season were on national TV, while this weekend's game at Purdue is scheduled to air on Big Ten Network.
• In addition, the season's final four regular season games are all expected to air nationally: Ohio (ESPN2), at Western Michigan (ESPN2/ESPNU), Toledo (ESPN2/ESPNU) and Ball State (ESPNU/ESPN3).

Johnson On Historic Pace
• Since the year 2000, only three quarterbacks in college football have thrown for more yards in the first three weeks of a season than Matt Johnson's 1,358 to start the 2015 campaign.
• Of the top five, where Johnson ranks fourth, it took the Falcons' signal caller just 91 completions to rack up his 1,358 yards and 12 TDs. The next fewest completions among those inside the top five since 2000 is 114.

Head Coaches On The Rise
• During the month of June, Athlon Sports named several head coaches who were rising stars in the profession. In just his fourth season as a head coach, Dino Babers made the list.
• Babers is 27-13 in his three year career as a head coach, including an 8-6 record during his first season on the sideline at Bowling Green.
• Despite losing his starting quarterback in the season opener last year, the Falcons still managed to claim the MAC East Division and win the inaugural Camellia Bowl over South Alabama.

High Scoring Home Opener
• Saturday's 44-41 thriller at Doyt L. Perry Stadium marked the second-highest combined score for a home opener ever at BGSU. The 85 combined points were just behind a 48-40 game between BGSU and Buffalo in 2006 which totaled 88 combined points.

Wrapping Up Nonconference Play And Looking Ahead To MAC Play
• The Falcons will wrap up a tough nonconference schedule Saturday at Purdue before starting MAC play the following week at Buffalo.
• BGSU has won 12 straight games against MAC East foes and is 16-1 in such games dating back to the 2012 season.

Seeing Double at BGSU
• The 2015 roster features two sets of brothers on the team in Travis/Trenton Greene and Gehrig/Nolan Dieter.
• Many fans know Travis Greene, who sits fourth all-time in career rushing yards at BGSU. His brother, Trenton, was recently awarded a scholarship and made his first career start on Saturday against Tennessee, racking up a career-best 12 tackles.
• For the Dieters, both transferred to BGSU after starting their careers somewhere else. Gehrig began his career at SMU, but transferred and has been at Bowling Green for three seasons. On Saturday against No. 25 Tennessee, Dieter caught seven passes for a career-high 133 yards. Nolan, a redshirt-senior, is a quarterback on the Falcons roster.

Trending Towards 100
• In the first season of Dino Babers' #FalconFast offense at Bowling Green, the Falcons had 11 receiving and nine rushing performances of 100-or-more yards. The 11 receiving games tied a school record for most in a season, while the nine rushing efforts was just two shy of the school record.
• After just two weeks, the Falcons are trending towards breaking both of those marks. The BGSU offense has four 100-yard receiving performances and a 100-yard rushing performance already this season.
• The five total 100-yard performances have come from four different players so far during the first two weeks of the 2015 season.